Resident Evil: Welcome to the City of the Dead
by AtticusLegend
Summary: Jack is being held before his trial at the Raccoon City Police Department when Raccoon is overrun with zombies and other mutants. He is rescued by a beautiful girl named Claire, who is looking for her brother. Follow their struggle as they work together to overcome the outbreak nightmare, hardship and the need to survive drives them closer together more than they think.
1. Prologue: In Chains

Resident Evil: Welcome to Dead City

Prologue: In Chains

Jack Brody awoke as the prison van came to an abrupt stop, he shifted his weight onto his left side and let the momentum of the hollow vehicle bring him upright. The horn honked once and the doors in the back swung open, two Raccoon City Police Officers were waiting for him. Jack read the first one's name as Brannagh which was stitched into his uniform.

"Come on Brody, nice and easy." He said to the young man.

Jack complied and held his shackled hands out in front of him as if to show he was no threat. The younger officer grasped Jack's collar and helped him down. They walked him through the car park and through a pair of double doors, Jack watched from the heavy security door as the big blue inner city police van pulled away. The officers led him down several corridors past a morgue and an armory up some stairs. Jack was sincerely amazed they had the layout memorized.

Finally they pulled him into the booking office and a shorter young receptionist looked up to see them. "Another one Marvin?"

"Yeah we're on our way to a cell, got one open in the West Wing? He's being held temporarily before transfer, don't need anything too fancy." Officer Brannagh said.

The young woman typed away at her computer, it took a couple minutes before she stopped.

"Oh, looks like we have an open house in West Wing, Captain is expecting you."

"Thanks Mary,"

The officers led Jack through the double doors out of reception and into the main hall. Jack looked all around the room, it was massive. The elegant décor, fancy marble floors, and dark colored accent wood seemed out of place for the small mid-western urban city he had rolled through coming in.

"Charming," Jack said to himself.

"Keep moving, this isn't your free time." The younger officer prodded him along. They clearly weren't in the mood.

As they crossed the main hall Jack looked up at the white statue standing over them and behind the main reception area. It was of a young woman holding a vase, it was beautiful, once again a bit over the top for a police station but whatever. Jack peered up at reception as the officers led him away, he could just make out a pudgy heavier set man with dark hair speaking to the receptionist. Whoever he was he was making quite the scene yelling and pointing at the emergency ladder to their right at the back of the main hall.

As they ascended the stairs just before the main entrance a young thing red haired woman passed by the trio. Jack couldn't help but look back at her, she wore a light blue tube top and a black skirt. She also had a customized handgun holstered on her hip, she looked back at him and shot him a questionable look. He winked at her and she rolled her eyes back at him.

Jack couldn't help but smile as he turned back to his escorts.

"Don't bother kid, she's a bit of a hardass around here." Officer Brannagh said.

"Yeah Miss Valentine can have a bit of a 'tude sometimes but she's got a fine ass."

Officer Brannagh sighed, "Almost there."

They passed a few soda machines and passed through a couple more corridors before they reached their destination. A small room with three cells, they didn't look like much just as the receptionist said. Jack couldn't help but scowl a little.

"Look kid, you're only here a couple days, just chill and they'll be transporting you soon." Brannagh told him.

An older officer with balding hair rose from his desk near the entrance.

"What's he in for?"

"Nothing major Charlie, DWI, he will be in and out soon, the precinct in Eddington were out of space, he's just here until his trial." Brannagh informed him.

"Agh, you never have anything good for me Marvin!" Charlie protested as the pair turned for the door.

"Yeah the file's a little boring, hang in there Charlie, heard the end of your shift is soon."

Jack leaned back onto his cot and closed his eyes, doing his best to drown out the background banter. The cell wasn't great, but it was better than cuffs. As his eyes closed he felt the rush of outside air and then he was asleep.

He awoke in the dark, to the smell of something rotten…something wasn't right.


	2. Chapter 1: Last Man on Earth?

Chapter One: Last Man on Earth?

Claire awoke, she stirred and felt her head for any injuries and discovered a fine knob on her head from where her forehead struck the dash. The young man she met only minutes before stirred next to her and peered up at the rearview mirror of the small police cruiser they had wrecked only seconds before.

"Shit, that guy's gonna ram us!" He yelled, his youthful gaze catching hers.

"Get out now! He yelled to her as he dove out of his seat and the seatbelt whipped behind him. Claire followed suit and swore she felt the rush of wind graze the hairs on her neck as her ponytail flipped up behind her and rolled from the ensuing explosion.

"Claire!" She could hear him calling for her.

"Leon!" She screamed over the roaring flames and shifting metals.

"I'm okay, listen you need to find your way to the police station, you'll be a lot safer!"

"Okay," Claire answered. She agreed the whole town was going insane and the station would be the last safe haven, assuming there was one.

She looked down at the Browning HP nine millimeter handgun she had gotten from the cruiser on her waistband as several more of those things shuffled towards her. It had been a couple years since her brother Chris took her shooting, but she would need to do her best to remember. Claire pressed the magazine release on the weapon and examined it. Thirteen rounds, she expected less, so she figured herself lucky the gun was loaded in the first place.

The gun didn't look standard issue, most Raccoon officers carried nine millimeter Beretta's, hell even her own brother carried a modified version of a Beretta. This was either a backup or personal weapon. Claire caught herself in deep thought and rather than firing her weapon aimlessly at a couple of them she darted off to the side of the street and raced around them.

They were so slow, still, get them in a group or moving all at once and they were dangerous. She learned her lesson plenty in the diner and wouldn't make that mistake again. As she rounded off the corner she realized the street was blocked by a police barricade, strange, it was the first one she'd seen since arriving into town. Maybe things could get worse the further she ventured in?

Claire pushed that though aside and stopped in the middle of the street to see a sign dangling by one chain from its original post.

"Kendo Gun Shop" "Open"

Claire smirked, "Perfect"

 _Hopefully its empty, I will snag some ammunition and be on my way. Problem solved._

Despite it being so short, she was thankful just to have a plan. She managed two dodge two more shuffling corpses and threw her shoulder into the door frame. Almost immediately she was greeted by a shotgun muzzle.

"Freeze!"

The man was heavyset and his eyes were sunken beneath his face, as if he hadn't slept in days.

"Who are ya? What're you doin here?" He cocked a shell into the shotgun as Claire attempted to explain.

He lowered his weapon, "Ooooh, sorry about that babe…"

The man she could only assume was Kendo, circled the counter.

Claire stepped back instinctively, he creeped her out to say the least the way he gazed down at her as he passed by.

"What's going on in this down," she started as she rested her hand on the gun in her belt.

He was a little too close for comfort.

"Hold on," he turned and locked the door behind her then turned to her once more.

"I ain't got no clue darlin, by the time I noticed something was wrong, the entire city was infested with zombies."

With that Claire turned from him and stepped further into the shop, keeping her eyes on the back of her head in case he made a sudden move.

"Do you have much ammo left? I can pay." She offered.

Kendo shrugged, "Honestly a lot of my good stock is gone, al I have left is my trusty shotgun here, a few lockers or shells in the back with the rest of my supplies. I do believe there are some left over boxes of nines behind the counters, it isn't much. Considering you are as good a shot as you look to the eyes, I'd say it'll buy you a couple nights."

Claire nodded, "Thanks, I appreciate it."

"Don't mention it, I'm not much of a handgun guy anyways."

Claire circled the counter and found three boxes of ammunition behind the counter and pocketed what she could. She didn't mention it to Kendo, but she also found a spare Browning HP magazine. She quickly stuffed it into her pocket.

"Where you headed to now beautiful?" He asked.

"The Police Station, I heard its secure."

Kendo seemed to scoff at her idea, "The police station wasn't much help, they boarded themselves up, some officers skipped town and others who were stupid enough to stay fell to the undead."

"Yeah but if anyone knows a way out, it would be a police officer." Claire argued as she started for the back door.

Kendo stepped forward once more, "H-hey," just then the full body window by the front door of his shop crashed open.

"Shit," Claire said as the first two zombie dove right onto Kendo, Kendo managed to pull the trigger once but the spread only clipped the first of the trio tripping through the window. They moaned as they threw themselves onto him in a heap, like football players going for the tackle.

Claire felt a tingle up her spine as her eyes tried to register what was happening.

 _Do something!_

Claire lifted the Browning and placed her sights over the shambling creeps and squeezed the trigger once. She lowered the weapon slightly, looking over at them as if expecting them to scatter and run in opposite directions. She expected the one she hit to fly back or drop to the floor. Neither of those things happened, instead the creature tripped backwards, straightened his stance, then continued towards her. His white eyeballs falling back into his head once more and his pale shredded skin reminded her of the cook from the diner.

 _They wont fall, just like Leon had said! What are you waiting for? Get out of there!_

Claire's eyes fell to Kendo's body, still being devoured before her across the shop. The other monsters noticed her and began joining the first one she shot and stretched their arms out towards her. Kendo's ribs were exposed now, he wasn't getting up. Claire hadn't known him, but felt nothing but dread for him, even if he did seem scummy.

Claire lowered her weapon and turned for the back door, she threw it open and slammed the door behind her. She took a moment to take in her surroundings as she heard the monsters pound on the door behind her, their moans muffled by the thick oak. The alleyway was cramped but clear of any creatures, she took a moment to gather herself and holstered her weapon.

 _What the hell were these things?_

Who was she kidding? They shuffled and stumbled around, fed on the living, hell it took that bullet like a piece of wadded up paper. She knew damn well what she was looking at, _zombies._

 _A couple more steps and I would've…_ she pushed that thought from her head and headed for a set of stairs down the alleyway.

… _(a few hours earlier)_

Jack shook the iron bars violently watching as the cops watching his cell scattered out of the room. Only Charlie remained and even he had his firearm drawn, the man had sweat glistening on his forehead, clearly he was nervous too.

"Hey!" Jack yelled to him once more.

"Sssh," Charlie said from pursed lips as he listened for noise outside the one exit room.

Jack let his hands free from the bars from three cells down, he was the last cell on the small block. Charlie lifted his 38. Special revolver to the door as he heard rapid footsteps sprinting down the hallway outside. Charlie's radio had been going crazy all night.

First it started with dispatch and cruiser calls from the streets. Then scattered reports of attacks and riots in the streets, citizens were being bitten in attacks from one edge of the city to another. Police seemed to respond when they could, Jack also thought he heard the hospital was on lockdown and the local high school had been turned into a shelter. It sounded like the end was coming, the whole world was being destroyed outside and here he was trapped in a cell with a sweaty old man. Not what he had seen happening.

Jack rubbed the back of his neck nervously, there was no clock in the small room, but they served dinner at 6:00 and the radio calls had only started just before that. Just then the metal door swung open and two officers raced in.

"Charlie we need you outside pronto, they're getting the K-9's and calling in SWAT and the S.T.A.R.S!"

"Then what do they need us for?" Charlie protested.

"We need to setup a perimeter in front of the police station, those things are multiplying!" The youngest officer said.

Jack bolted to the jail cell bars and yelled towards the trio, "What's outside? Can't you at least get me out of here?"

"You stay here," the older officer ordered Jack.

"Sorry kid, Chief's orders, prisoners stay prisoners." Charlie said as he holstered his revolver.

"Here, take this and grab your riot gear." The older officer said as he handed an AR-15 to Charlie, Charlie seemed to hesitate when he saw the blood on the barrel.

"It was one of the SWAT guys' sorry I couldn't find one in the armory."

Charlie grabbed it and checked the safety, "Fine."

They turned to leave the other two officers running out of the room and down the halls, Charlie looked back at Jack. Jack shook his head, as if trying to deter the man from leaving.

"Charlie, please don't leave me here, at least throw me the key man, I'll give you a few minutes then disappear." Jack pleaded, knowing damn well that if Charlie left it was very likely he would be left to starve and die before anything else happened.

Charlie smiled back at him, "Orders are orders kid, listen if things are as bad as they make it seem I will come back. I wont let you die like an animal son."

Charlie sighed and wiped the sweat from his brow and took off in a jog out the door.

"Charlie wait!" Jack yelled, reached out of the iron cage.

Jack felt his mouth open in awe, that was it, he was gone. Jack wanted to believe Charlie was a man of his word, but the radio didn't lie. Two things were going to happen, either everyone in Raccoon City was going to die, or the survivors would be evacuated, either way Jack was going to die.


	3. Chapter 2: The Dead Walk

Chapter Two: The Dead Walk

Claire's journey had been a disheartening one, she didn't know why with every turn she was surprised by more walking dead. Maybe she hadn't fully adjusted, she found dodging them to be a successful method, only having to shoot a couple in the tight corners. Her aim was also a work in progress, she found herself working to hit them in the torso, "Center Mass" as her brother Chris used to say.

She remembered how angry he would get watching the news reports, citizens protesting police brutality. He used to shake his head at the eye witness reports when the average citizen would ask, "Why not aim for their arm or hand? You can shoot the gun out of their hand, why kill a man?" The more she fired her weapon that night the more his words made sense.

"If a weapon is being used, it is a last resort, only as self defense, you never aim a weapon at anything or anyone you are unwilling to destroy. Shoot to kill." Though his words seemed so wise at the time, she couldn't help but find them antiquated given her current predicament. She was literally sinking rounds into these things and they barely reacted, only the force sent them back a couple steps allowing her to slip through their grasp.

For now, her strategy was working, but what about if she was outnumbered and outflanked then what? How would she make them immobile?

It wasn't until one of her shots went high and struck a zombie in the head that she realized why she was having a hard time. One bullet sent the creature down and it stayed down, no movement. Claire couldn't help but smile at her success, in a twisted way it was the answer to her prayers.

 _Of course, they're zombies, gotta destroy the brain!_

She wasn't sure why the brain was so different, after all there were other vital organs she was hitting, like the heart for example. She didn't care much for the science of it, only to be ready to take advantage of her newfound tactic so she may survive the night.

She finally found her way onto a street, immediately she was overwhelmed by the stench of death she had thought she was getting used to. Claire removed the handgun from it's holster and held it in front of her, with her palm up against her mouth and nose.

That was when she heard it, the sickening _Squelch_ and _Squish_ of snapping bone and tearing flesh. Claire removed her left hand from her nose and wrapped her grasp onto her handgun. She took cover behind a nearby Cadillac and slowly rolled her head around the corner of the trunk of the car and spotted about five zombies hunched over, feeding on the bullet riddled corpse of a man.

It was like looking at a mirror image of Kendo, except from the backside, the dead man's spine glistened white beneath the red muscle, he wasn't moving, long since dead.

Claire looked away and couldn't hold her stomach, she threw up onto the warm summer night pavement. What little food was in her system was now spilled all over Raccoon City's streets. Claire squinted her eyes, hoping against hope they hadn't heard her. As she quietly sat listening for noise she quickly realized, the noise of ripping flesh was no longer in the air.

Claire's eyes went wide as she turned back to see the group starting towards her, arms outstretched and moaning for their meal like it was their last. Claire stood up from her hiding place, she considered turning and running but quickly remembered everything was blocked off, she'd just end up running down the dead alleyways and end up in Kendo's gunshop. She knew that wasn't an option.

That was when she saw it, above the large metropolitan Raccoon City Transit bus in the distance towering over her. It was a castle like fortress with a clock reading 9:15 and the letters "RPD" were inscribed with lights shining over them, illuminating them in the night sky.

The only thing standing in her way, were the five zombies, Claire raised her weapon and fired, quickly going through the last five rounds in her magazine before loading the next from Kendo's gunshop. She slapped the mag home and pointed it back at the undead before her and squeezed the trigger, the first shot went high the second hit one zombie in the brow sending him down immediately.

Claire adjusted her aim and fired onto the second half of the group and sent two more down, the third stumbled back into a fall. She saw her opportunity and took it and raced over their corpses, leaving one still standing and the other struggling to find its footing after being knocked over by a flurry of bullets.

Claire kicked the door in the bus and slammed it shut behind her once she was safe inside.

… **Meanwhile at the Station…**

Jack spent his night listening for someone, anyone to come racing down the hall. It was unbelievable what a couple hours of loneliness and silence was doing to his psyche. He spent the past couple hours thinking about his mistake, the very reason he was in this mess.

 _Drove too fast, should've had a DD…_

His thoughts returned to his family, mainly his parents the guilt he felt for his mistake and wondering if he may see them again. Was this an isolated incident? A prank? Could this be happening in his hometown?

Whatever it was it definitely wasn't a prank, though he wished it was in the back of his mind. He sits wondering if he's going to die for a couple minutes and out of nowhere the cops come in laughing and teasing him. After the first hour though that possibility seemed more and more out there.

Just then he heard it, heavy footsteps plodding down the hall. Jack sat up and leaned against the iron bars once more. Maybe his luck was going to change? There were a couple loud bangs, loud enough to make Jack almost jump out of his skin. The door flew open and Charlie rolled in stumbling against the desk down the corridor.

"Charlie, holy shit you came back!" Jack yelled while white knuckling the iron bars.

Charlie didn't seem to share his excitement as he plucked the AR-15 from the tiled floor and holstered his revolver.

"We need to get out of here now!" Charlie breathed heavily as he slammed the metal door closed behind him.

The tired old man stumbled around his desk and started searching for something frantically.

"Charlie, what's going on out there?"

Charlie shook his head as he searched, "It was horrible, the perimeter was broken I barely escaped. Officer Brannagh and a couple other officers got away as well, we gotta meet them in reception and head downstairs."

Jack seemed confused by his strategy, "There's a basement in this place?"

Charlie finally whipped the keys from the drawer and slung the AR-15 over his shoulder.

"Opposite the morgue downstairs is a car park, we're gonna get ourselves an armored van and make our exfil." Charlie began to walk over.

The metal door swung open behind him and in stumbled several figures, they moaned and groaned in protest as Charlie picked up his pace. Charlie reached the cell and fumbled through the keys and began trying them one by one.

 _Oh my god…he doesn't know which one!_

Jack shook his head, "What the hell are those things?"

"We don't know, there were a bunch of murders a couple months back we believe this is all connected. We don't have the time!" Charlie raised his voice, Jack could hear it shake and rattle with fear.

Jack wondered how the hell they were going to escape this room with so many of these things blocking their only exit.

"Charlie, give me your gun, I can cover you!" Jack suggested.

Charlie shot him a look as if questioning whether his life would be in any more danger.

"Seriously, why would I shoot you now? You're my only escape." Jack complained.

Against his better instinct Charlie removed the AR-15 from his back and handed it through the bars.

"Should be full, I didn't even get to fire it outside." Charlie instructed, "You shot one of those before?"

"Did some hunting with my father awhile back, its worth a shot."

Charlie didn't seem to feel any better about it regardless as he scurried through the keys. The mindless creatures closing on them now faster than before. Maybe the light made them appear faster?

Jack rested the AR-15 against his shoulder and aimed down the iron sights squinting. Jack squeezed the trigger as the rounds ripped through the horde knocking them back, one of them was nearly torn in half. Jack released the trigger watching them fall to the floor. All seemed to be looking up but then Jack noticed movement, the eviscerated zombie from before reached and began to pull itself across the floor. Dark coagulated blood was oozing from its fresh wound.

 _Why is their blood so dark?_

"Jesus Charlie, what the fuck are these things?" Jack yelled.

"Aim for the head, it's the only way we could stop them!" Charlie yelled back.

They were now only one cell away, Jack's sporadic fire only stopped them for a second.

 _Sure now you tell me, now that I've used most of my ammunition…_

Jack aimed at the closest once more and squeezed sending multiple rounds into the nearest creature, one went high and struck his head sending him into the floor immediately.

"That's it kid, you got it!" Charlie yelled.

Jack wasn't feeling so positive, his magazine had to be empty soon and there were at least five more of them.

"Hope you got a plan Charlie, I'm running low on ammo!" Jack yelled as he fired once more sending two more zombies against one another into the wall. The blood from their impact smearing as they sagged.

Charlie began to shake as he continued to struggle, _Why so many keys what is this? Every key in the building?_

Jack peaked down at the key ring to see how many had been tried, still quite a few to go, there on one of the keys was that an engraving of a sword? Jack shook the thought from his mind and pulled the trigger once more, another creature was down, but the weapon began to click.

"Charlie, I'm out! You got more for this thing?"

Charlie shook his head, Jack let the assault weapon fall to the concrete floor in his cell and reached through the bars and pulled Charlie's revolver from it's holster.

The last two zombies seemed to pick up their pace, as if they sensed dinner was only a few seconds away. Jack slid the release on the revolver's side to reveal the cylinder, after a quick examination he realized only two shots remained.

 _I'm either the luckiest or unluckiest guy in the world right now!_

Jack whipped the revolver to the side and let the cylinder fly home and pulled the hammer back as he aimed. The custom night sights glowed over the zombie's head.

Jack squeezed the trigger and watched as the head disappeared into a spray of red mist. Jack felt his stomach turn but the adrenaline kept him going, forcing his throat to shove the bile back down. Jack shifted the weapon over and locked onto the last zombie and pulled the trigger, this time its brow slapped back, the nose was gone and the tongue wriggled out of the open jaw as it collapsed immediately.

Jack let out a short lived sigh of relief when he heard Charlie scream. Jack looked down at Charlie, _No…I forgot the crawler…_

"Charlie!" Jack yelled, he felt the sweat pouring from his brow, the man who came back for him was writhing on the floor in pain.

Jack began to kick the cell as hard as he could, Charlie pulled a knife from his boot and stabbed the creature in it's chin, dark blood poured from its face as it pulled itself onto him and gripped his adam's apple with it's jagged teeth and ripped what Jack assumed to be his jugular away.

"Fuck, no Charlie!"

But it was too late, Charlie struggled holding his neck for a moment or two longer before the air emptied his lungs. Jack backed away from the bars and placed his palms against his forehead and felt the tears pouring from his eyes. Jack watched helplessly as the only person who gave a crap about him was eaten by the last crawler.

 _No!_

Jack turned his gaze to the cell bars and crouched near the feeding crawler, the knife was still protruding from its chin. Jack reached through the iron bars and grasped its hair in one hand, he pulled it away from Charlie's corpse and held it before him. Jack sat looking into its lifeless eyes. For a moment, Jack thought he saw humanity and felt the tears in his eyes well up once more. Instead he shook the thought away and grasped the hilt of the knife and pulled it out of its chin.

Then he angled the biting head in the right position and with all the might he had left to muster jabbed it into the zombie's skull. The crawler sagged and its mouth hung open like a puppet's. Jack left the knife in and tossed the head away.

He peered over at Charlie's lifeless body and sighed, "Sorry Charlie…"

 **Author's Note:** _ **Finally some action, hope you all enjoyed this as much as I had fun working on it. I read through my previous chapters and found some silly errors, so I took the time to double check this one. Thank you for the kind words and hopefully we will have another chapter here in the coming days, taking my time with this one, I want it to be good.**_

 _ **Coming up, we get an update on Leon's situation and a mutant will be joining the party.**_

 _ **I plan for this story to be a long one, so sit tight and enjoy!**_


	4. Chapter 3: Licker

Chapter Three: Licker

Leon pulled himself over the concrete walls of the RPD, his run to the massive police station had been a brisk one. He had no idea what these things were, but he was running low on ammunition and his sweat had become stick and cold form his escape. Leon swung his leg over the side of the wall and before jumping did a quick look around the main entrance and courtyard.

 _Nothing, looks like there's a few in the courtyard, main entrance is clear._

Leon wiped the gun powder filled sweat from his brow and leapt down from the wall into a planter. He stumbled out of the planter and drew his weapon, a Heckler and Koch VP70, it was his service weapon and never left his side on duty. Well for the little time he was, being a rookie cop transfer to Raccoon City was not paving out the way he thought it would.

Without another thought he jogged to the main doors, peering back at the stumbling figures in the courtyard Leon quickly pushed his way inside. He hoped he would find someone alive, anyone, a sign that all was not lost but the police station was eerily quiet. Save for the two undead walking the main hall, Leon took a moment to take in the sights. The main hall was cavernous in size and lavish in its décor. To his right upon entering was a solid oak door there was a plaque to the left of it reading, "Interrogation & Holding Cells."

Leon turned his gaze away, if any officers were left they would be in a more secure location. His best chances were to find the armory and car park, at the worst he could hotwire a cruiser. With that thought Leon proceeded into the main hall and raised his handgun.

… **Seconds Later in the Holding Cells…**

 _Boom! Boom!_

Jack rose suddenly from his cot and sat up listening carefully, Gunshots? They were unmistakable, someone was here, but who? Did he really want to know?

 _Boom!_ Jack got up from his seat, it didn't matter, if he wanted to survive he needed to make them know he was here.

"Help! I'm in here!" Jack yelled in the corridor, he waited as if he expected them to come running. Nothing…not even a fourth gunshot, could they have left?

Jack listened carefully once more, still nothing, whoever they were they were gone and didn't hear shit.

Jack let out a scream of frustration, "Goddammit!" Jack plucked the knife from the zombie's body and chucked it as hard as he could at the cell wall. His reality seemed to sink in every half hour, this was no longer a cell but a grave, its only a matter of time.

… **Minutes later in Reception…**

Leon went into the first set of double doors on his left and was immediately met with a .45 in his face.

"Whoa, hold your fire!" Leon yelled holding up both hands.

Just in front of him was a fellow officer, his uniform read RPD Officer Brannagh.

"Sorry about that kid," he grunted as he lowered his pistol and holstered it into his holster. "Looks like not all of the officers were killed in the perimeter slaughter."

Leon raised an eyebrow at him as the man's eyes fell on his badge, "Oh that's why I don't recognize you, Kennedy, you're the new transfer. Sorry about the crappy first day Officer."

Leon laughed a little at the sarcastic remark before holstering his own weapon. "What the hell's going on in this town?"

"Not long before all of this began, we received reports of cannibalistic murders. At first they were sporadic, until the S.T.A.R.S. went to investigate ground zero in the nearby Arklay Mountains where the murders began. Long story short they returned and tried to warn of what they encountered. The Chief had them disavowed and stripped of their rank, they disappeared soon after that, then well all of this…" Brannagh sunk into a nearby office waiting couch and wiped his brow of glistening sweat.

Leon wasn't sure what to say, it was all so outlandish and Brannagh told the story like he's explained it thousands of times.

"Are there any other officers in the building?" Leon asked.

Brannagh looked up at him between his fingers and seemed to think for a second. "Actually yes, Officer Stevens and Thompson are securing the armory and getting us the keys to one of the armored SWAT vans. I recommend you come with us, there's nothing left here."

Leon nodded before his thoughts returned to Claire, "What about any survivors? Have we searched the building?"

Brannagh seemed to sigh inwardly, "What's your name again son?"

Leon was taken aback by his attitude, "Leon."

"Listen Leon, I've seen what these things do, I've watched many officers in this department, including the lovely reception lady lose their lives over risking their skins for others. You leave this room and try to turn this into a rescue operation two things will happen, I can't promise you will be safe and we will not wait in the van for you to show. We are at a point where we are combat ineffective, the chief has gone missing, SWAT is eviscerated, the S.T.A.R.S. were smart and went off grid and I promise you the four of us are the last people in this building right now."

Just then a loud screech emanated through the halls and echoed into reception.

"What was that?" Leon asked.

Brannagh stood and drew his weapon, "Shit, its found us."

Leon shot him a questionable glance, "What has?" His naïve youthful face looked worried.

"If you got your service weapon, I would get it ready." Brannagh ordered him.

Leon drew the H&K VP70 and listened carefully with it aimed to the floor.

 _AYEEEOOUGUGHHH!_

Leon felt his spine jump under his skin as a crash was heard from behind a panel in reception, something was coming…

It pulled itself around the paneling and Leon caught his first glimpse of the monster, this was no zombie. This beast was eyeless, it was a sickening combination of muscle and sinew. Saliva dripped from its razor teeth covered mouth. Its back was arched and it hissing at them as it picked up the sweaty officer's scents. It had massive sharp white claw where its hands should have been, giant talons. It's feet were clawed and it turned its head in their direction. The most distinctive characteristic was its long whipping tongue that slid from its mouth.

It let out a long moan, it was nothing like the zombies, it was lighter in tone but much more terrifying.

 _EEEHEHEHEHEEEEEEEEHAAAHH_

Leon knew nothing about the creature but already knew it wasn't meant to live, it was meant to die.

"What are we looking at Brannagh?!" Leon yelped.

"We'll talk about it later," Brannagh said as he raised his own weapon and pulled the trigger his first shot went low.

Leon fired twice both shots striking the creature. That was when it moved, leaping at them quickly, Leon dove to the right, hitting the floor with a thud. Brannagh fell left and rolled onto his left shoulder turning his aim down at the creature, now standing where they had been.

Brannagh pulled the trigger three more times, only one of his rounds striking the creature in the shoulder. Leon rolled into a crouch and fired his weapon missing the creature entirely.

 _Nothing's going to happen if we can't hit the damn thing…_

Leon raced towards the broken window and turned to fire once more in the small reception area and hit the creature three times as it turned towards Brannagh. Brannagh, scurried away as Leon fired and stopped halfway across the small room to fire twice more the slugs knocked the creature onto its back. It let out a sharp cry, as it writhed in pain and quivered.

Leon joined Brannagh's side, "Nice shot."

"Likewise," Brannagh answered with wide eyes.

"Is it dead?" Leon started.

As if right on cue the monster flipped onto its hind legs and shot its tongue out at Leon wrapping around his neck and pulled him down with all of its might. Brannagh dove and grabbed Leon's boot.

"Hold on Leon!" He removed his combat knife from his sheath and in one clean swipe cut the tongue away, the blood from the creature shot into the air in a single spurt. The creature let out another cry as it reacted by thrusting its neck at Brannagh catching his wrist in it's jaws.

"AGGGHHGHHH!" Brannagh yelled.

"Shit," Leon reacted as he grabbed his fallen H&K and while still lying on the floor sent another round into its face. The creature fell again into a pool of its own blood.

Leon rolled onto his feet, trying to keep his weapon trained on the downed creature. Brannagh removed a bandage from his utility belt and wrapped it carefully, wincing at the pain.

"Ugh it actually bit me…"

"You think its dead now?" Leon asked as they both stepped over the body.

"Only one way to be sure," Brannagh answered as he pulled his weapon and in one quick motion pulled the trigger twice, emptying its magazine, the creature's face became a caved in pile of mush.

"I think we're good, bro…" he patted Brannagh on the back.

"What now?" Leon asked,

"Now we need to get a status on Thompson and Stevens, lets hope they were able to get some weapons and keys, I'm out." Brannagh said.

"You gonna be okay man?" Leon asked as he holstered his nine millimeter.

Brannagh, "Just a scratch, I'll be fine."

… **Author's Note…**

Hope you guys enjoy this update, not much happening in this chapter, but next chapter the story really gets rolling along. Thank you for the support and checking out the story.


	5. Chapter 4: Hesitant Rescue

Chapter Four: Hesitant Rescue

Claire slammed through the RPD courtyard iron gate, she landed on her side on the cool pavement. She kicked the open gate closed as the zombies' arms clamored and wrapped around the bronze bars. She let out a deep breath and rose from her lying position dragging her ponytail from the concrete, keeping her handgun trained on the gate.

 _Ugggghhh…_

Claire turned to see the courtyard leading to the main entrance well-guarded by shuffling mindless creatures, three of them to be exact. Dodging them would be a challenge, even if she stuck to the low stone walls on the perimeter, the courtyard was small to begin with. Claire would have nowhere to go had they got a hold of her.

She turned her attention to a nearby stone stair well, she approached it with her gun drawn. It appeared to lead down a dark archway and led up to the other side of the main entrance where she could enter the building.

All seemed well until her eyes caught something, a moving shadow staggering in the darkness below. It was the only one in the passageway, weighing the options 1 versus 3 wasn't hard to choose. Claire readied her firearm and descended into the darkness, instead of stepping into the dark archway she tapped the but of her Browning against the concrete wall and watched as the shadow's gaze caught hers.

Claire took a step back and steadied her aim until it stumbled into view. The zombie wore camo pants and a yellow vest, he had an RPD ID that read _Vickers._ Claire recognized the label above his name, S.T.A.R.S. it was her brother's unit.

 _God, if only he was still alive, maybe he'd know where Chris is?_

Claire took a deep breath and pulled the trigger, sending the round in between his eyes. Claire waited a moment to make sure he was down before approaching his body. She ruffled through his pockets, his waistband produced a magazine for a Beretta in his holster, Claire almost took it, but decided against it. The police station would have more weapons and carrying the extra weight for a weapon that fired the same caliber seemed like a waste of space.

Instead she removed the magazine from the gun and popped the rounds left in the magazine, she counted 8, he must've been firing his weapon before his death. She also removed his ID from his wallet, it was his S.T.A.R.S. card and it could prove useful with gaining access inside the RPD.

"Sorry Brad," Claire muttered before jogging down the rest of the dark tunnel. She took the stairs two at a time and whipped her weapon around the main entrance area and entered the large main doors.

… **Minutes Later in the Holding Cells of the RPD…**

At first Jack thought he was dreaming, had fallen asleep and was hearing the echoing footsteps in a dream. As they got louder and started to close in his eyes shot open. He rolled off the cot and felt his legs immediately give out. Jack scrambled for the iron bars of his cell and let his lungs fill with air before screaming for his life.

"In here! Please, help!"

Just then the footsteps stopped just outside the door, "In the cells, please don't leave me here!"

Just then the door creaked open and in stepped a girl around his age holding a small handgun in her grasp. Jack felt his jaw drop then caught himself as he took in her appearance. She was dressed in black with shorts and a red vest, her hair was brown and in a pony tail, she held her weapon with purpose and it was clear she was a survivor.

She turned from the desk and stopped when she saw the body covered floor. She trained her gun on the corpses until Jack spoke up.

"No worries, they're long dead." Jack realized how weird that must've sounded. "I mean, its been a crazy night."

She raised her eyebrow at him as she approached, stepping over corpses as she went. "What the hell happened in here?"

Jack seemed to not hear her question, "Man am I glad to see you, I thought I was going to die here."

She crouched down to Charlie's body and checked his pulse, she seemed to groan in frustration.

Jack nodded, "Yeah, they got him while he was trying to get me out of here."

She shot him a look of confusion, "I see, I'm looking for someone maybe you know him?"

Jack shook his head, "Sorry I doubt it, I was just being held before my trial."

"Your trial? What did you do?"

Jack chose his words carefully, "I uh, got a DUI…"

She shook her head, "A trial over a DUI?"

"Yeah I think its why they transferred me here in the first place, smaller city, smaller court." He said to her nervously.

"Right," she plucked the keys from the body and got up and turned to leave.

"Wait!" Jack pleaded.

She turned to him, with her gun holstered now.

"My name I Jack, what's yours?"

"My name is Claire, Claire Redfield, I need to get moving." Claire said as she went to leave again.

Jack grasped the bars before him, "Wait, don't leave me here."

Claire shook her head, "Look, I don't have time to hold someone's hand,"

"I wont be a problem, just please don't leave me here alone. Give me a chance." He begged realizing her concerns were completely valid. After all he was a strange man locked in a cell surrounded by dead cops.

Claire seemed to think for a second, the look in his eyes seemed genuine.

"Just a DUI?" Claire asked.

Jack nodded, "I made a mistake, I don't deserve to die for it."

Claire took another second to think before stepping back towards his cell, "I'm not sure if I can shoot the lock, probably too dangerous."

Jack's eyes darted down to her keys, "the cell keys are on the key ring you got from the officer's body."

Claire smirked, she began trying keys she was at it almost as long as Charlie had been before one clicked. She stopped halfway through the turn.

"Listen," she started, "try anything, and I wont hesitate."

Jack felt himself shudder a little at her callus, _damn…_

He nodded at her, "I promise."

With that she turned the key and the iron gate slid open with a groan, it was the most beautiful noise he had heard all night. He passed through the gate and for the first time he noticed just how pretty she was in the light with sparkling hazel eyes and light brown hair. She seemed to smile nervously when he caught her gaze and passed by him quickly.

"Any ammunition in the rifle?" Claire asked.

Jack shook his head, "No, long story. Don't think they keep anything in here either."

Claire headed for the door before stopping, "Look, you can come with or run off on your own. I'm not leaving until I find my brother. You're probably better off finding a car and getting out of here."

Jack froze realizing he had no plan from here, where would he go? What would he do? What happened if he ran into a hallway of zombies? Should he do what Claire suggested, run outside into the streets and hotwire a car? Charlie had said the perimeter had fallen, what did that mean?

"If you are looking for escape, I would avoid the streets altogether, stick to the alleyways and get yourself a gun." Claire suggested as she went for the doorknob.

"W-wait!" Jack stuttered.

Claire looked back at him questionably, "Maybe I can help you?"

When she raised her eyebrow at him, yet again, "I mean, until we find your brother."

Claire seemed to take an uncomfortably long amount of time to consider the option before, nodding "Fine, keep up."

With that Jack walked with her out of the cell room and didn't bother looking back, he didn't care how bad it was in the rest of the building. It couldn't be nearly as bad as the four walls he had spent the last eight hours in.

 _Its not the best situation, but at least you have another person to talk to now. I can try to talk her into leaving later, for now I need to stick with her and find something to protect myself with._


	6. Chapter 5: Signal

Chapter Five: Signal

Claire led Jack down a series of hallways she had travelled only once previously, the lockup was the only unlocked door she find in the East Wing. Which she found to be concerning, but she shook the though away, she did the number one thing her brother warned her not to do. Trusting a criminal wasn't something in her blood, Chris had taught her better. There was something about the boy though, something in his eyes. It was too early to say if he was safe to be around or not, but she wasn't exactly scared of him. Maybe it was her fear of being caught alone and in the reach of a pack of zombies and having no one to back her up?

 _Or maybe those blue eyes?_

She almost felt compelled to yell at herself to shut up and get her head in the game. After all, she had done her fair share of dating in college and relationships were never her strong suit. They hurried down the halls past a few soda machines before hanging a tight left hand turn around the corner. She lifted her gun slightly just in case they were taken off guard and slowed her pace to a quick stroll.

"When I first came down this hall I left a few stragglers stumbling around…" she told Jack.

Jack shot her a confused glance, "There's nothing here though?"

"Exactly, either they learned to open doors in the past few minutes or something else is going on. We should check the East Office, I heard some movement in there before. If it's a cop, maybe we can find ammunition or help?"

Jack nodded, though he seemed uneasy, she would be too if she were tagging along with an armed stranger.

He crept down the hall and quietly placed his hand on the knob and waited for her to join his side. It felt like they were going in like a SWAT team, while it made her nervous to spring on a group of heavily armed police she knew better, more than likely it would be more of the undead. This station looked out of commission for at least a couple days. Paperwork on the many desks, whiteboards with operational plans, and even calendars were marked with dates indicating two days ago. It was eerie as if all life had ceased to exist in the station at once, all she do was hope Chris wasn't amongst the dead.

"Open it," she whispered to Jack who creaked the door open slowly at first, when he sighted the first zombie he opened it faster as armed policemen were no longer the concern. Claire aimed at the first zombie reaching for them near the doorway and pulled the trigger quickly, sending a round into the female officer's chest, she stumbled back and Claire moved her aim to another pair who were creeping around the desks nearby.

Claire sent three shots in their direction and killed one instantly, another officer, the other zombie by the desk shook at the additional two shots sending him over a chair.

"Holy shit," Claire heard Jack say as she fired once round after another keeping herself as calm as she could to steady her shaking hand.

Just then another random creature grabbed Claire's black boot and pulled her down, Claire slipped and her gun fell to the wood flooring.

She let out a sharp cry, her eyes turned from her gun to the zombie and held it's head back as hard as she could. Just then the female officer zombie grabbed Jack from behind, Jack pushed back as hard as he could slammed her into the concrete wall. He heard a faint crack and loud snap, he assumed her neck was broken by the impact, she dropped almost immediately like a sack of bricks.

Claire looked up at him with worry in her eyes as he regained stability, he ran over and pulled the zombie's shoulders and looked over to see the zombie by the desk rising from the fallen chair.

"Shit, get up Claire!" Jack grabbed her arm and pulled her away, she whipped her leg outward and booted the zombie under the desk. Its head went back in a sudden motion and dropped the floor. Jack watched it lie motionless a moment longer when his thoughts returned to the fight at hand, the ghoul from behind the desk got its grasp on his coat and pulled at him. Mouth open with teeth ready to feast when its head knocked to one side and blood shot out in the opposite direction.

Jack turned his head to see Claire breathing deeply, grasping her weapon, the semi automatic nine millimeter had smoke flowing out of it's barrel.

"You okay?" She asked.

Jack tried to hide the fact he was out of breath and scared shitless, he nodded and got to his feet.

"Check the office for supplies, I would be shocked if none of these cops were armed." Claire said as she holstered her weapon and walked to the opposite side of the office.

The office itself was fairly large, a majority of the officer's desks were definitely located here. Some of the monitors were dimly lit with "No signal" messages on them. Claire watched the floor in front of her and beneath each desk after the terrifying experience she just had. She stopped at a bullet riddled corpse against the wall, she unholstered her handgun, the Beretta stirred in her hand slightly as she felt her bones tremble. Every corpse was a hazard, the dead could spring to life at any moment.

She held the gun up at its head and examined it closer, bringing her face in. This one had no visible bite marks or violent inhuman injuries like other zombies she'd seen. In fact, Claire was willing to bet this was no zombie at all, the corpse was riddled with bullets, the name on his badge was "Thompson". Whoever he was, he hadn't been dead long and wasn't coming back. His skin was still warm, just then Jack appeared at her side and she jumped.

"Oh my god!"

He crouched slower, "Sorry,"

She nodded, "Its not my brother."

Jack seemed to sigh a little as if he was relieved, she wasn't sure. Jack reached for the officer's leather chest holster under his coat, the man appeared to be a detective, not like the other cops in blue and tan uniforms. Jack lowered the holster over his shoulders and made sure the holster fell on his left side so his right arm could reach quickly. He reached into the holster and pulled the handgun in it's holster and examined it carefully, on the side it read _Spring XDM 9 Millimeter._

He stood up and pointed it with both hands on the butt and peered down the night sights. He had a little bit of experience with guns from his father and shooting at ranges. He pressed the magazine release and took a quick look at how many rounds the clip could carry. _Nineteen, looks like Thompson only fired the weapon a few times._ There were fourteen rounds in the magazine currently.

Jack slid the magazine back into the weapon and holstered it, he looked down at Claire who was still looking at the pale body.

"What's going on?"

She seemed slightly annoyed by his question, "It's the body, this man wasn't bitten, he was…"

"Shot to death." Jack whispered over her.

"Someone else is in this building Jack." Claire said, her thoughts returned to Leon, "but Leon wouldn't shoot a fellow police officer."

"Who?"

"Another man I met before I got here, Leon, he's one of the officers here, said it was his first day."

"Well I see you're point, Claire, we need to be careful and watch out for each other. If someone's running around the station killing anything in sight then we have more to worry about than we thought…"

Claire's gaze sharpened at him, "I agree, but we need to trust each other if that's the case."

Jack nodded, "If there is anything else I need to know about you. Now is the time to reveal it." Claire said.

Jack seemed to think for a second, "Well, I am a Scorpio if that's what you mean?"

"Oh don't get your hopes up, I'm assuming that means no."

Jack shook his head, "Look I made a mistake and I'm stuck here, I just want out that's it. I know you have no reason to believe me, just give me time I can prove it to you."

Claire smiled a little, she had been a little hard on him up until now. She could lay off a bit if he was going to put in the effort. "Right now I think we need to continue upstairs, there's a fire escape I entered from my first time through, the path should be clear."

Jack nodded, "One more thing," Claire started, "These things don't go down unless you destroy the brain, a bullet is always the best, but breaking the neck or spine seems to work, though I wouldn't recommend going against these things with nothing."

Jack nodded as he unholstered his weapon, "Ladies first."

… **Minutes Later in the West Halls…**

Leon worked his way through the halls, he had only needed to take out two of the monsters before finding a back room with a forensic dark room inside. He had found some handgun ammunition and even some kind of medical first aid spray. No sign of the other officers, who knows how far in they went before getting lost, turning around or worse.

Leon shook his head at the thought and shuffled forward pointing his weapon around tight corners. He decided the best logical step would be to head to the roof anyway he could and get a fix on his surroundings. It was a good thought and the most logical next step, he could then begin working his way downstairs again looking for the officers. Start with the easiest/ most likely scenario then work your way back to the main hall. He finally reached the third floor and found a maintenance closet, he opened the door slowly then quick to find another zombie feasting on a corpse. Without hesitating, he fired his H&K once and twice, hitting the head the second time sending the beast down on top of its meal.

Leon was starting to notice a pattern with the creatures, headshots were the most effective way to take them down. He remembered how terrifying they had once seemed out in the streets, but really when you got down to it they could be killed just as quick as he could. Mentally it helped him cope with the fact that he was looking monsters in the eyes and shooting what used to be human beings in the halls of his new station. The thought made him sick, understanding their mortality though made it easier.

 _Maybe easier isn't the word, numb sounds more like it…_

He found himself wishing he had listened to the phone call urging him to stay away. That he would've picked up the phone and called his now ex-girlfriend back and apologized for whatever stupid thing he said. Everything seemed so stupid and silly now.

He searched the closet quickly before noticing it, the very thing he was looking for, a maintenance ladder to the roof. He holstered his gun and climbed the ladder to the exit and stopped at the sight of a padlock dangling off to the side. In any other situation this wouldn't have phased him, but it was deliberate as if it was placed there. Leon pulled the handle on the hatch and lifted slowly so only his eyes could see.

The coast seemed clear, he lifted more and scrambled onto the flat surface of the roof. Leon raised his weapon and scanned the roof, rain began to pour as his boots shuffled across the concrete. Near the roof's edge was a body in uniform, he wasn't moving. Leon trained his weapon on the figure.

"RPD, let me see your hands!"

There was no movement or answer, from what Leon could see this was the only other person on the roof. Leon stepped forward and used his foot to kick the body over, no response. They were dead, he rolled them over and checked the badge. " _Stevens"_

"Damn it," it was one of the officer's Brannagh said was looking for a way out. Leon check the officer's waistband and retrieved a spare magazine, he took the time to work the rounds out of the clip and threw it aside.

Leon checked the man's chest pocket and found a small notebook with scribblings of what looked like directions,

 _Find Key to parking garage, retrieve key for armory from S.T.A.R.S. office, extra ammunition found in SWAT van in garage, escape in Brannagh's cruiser. Plan B, head into sewers using sewer manhole hook._

Leon smiled at the find, on the man's waistband he also found a silver keycard. On the face was a label and description for "RPD Parking Garage". On the back of the card was a logo, "Umbrella Corporation" with their ever-recognizable logo shining on the back. Leon also pried the man's fingers away to reveal an orange flare gun, he popped it open to find one unused flare. What surprised Leon was that the man was still warm to the touch, whatever killed him couldn't be far. The thought made him shudder, what did kill him anyway?

There were no wounds, well nothing out of the usually unfortunately, just bullet holes. Someone killed an officer who was perfectly fine, but why? Was it a mistake?

Just then he heard it, what Steven's probably heard just before he died. The whirring of helicopter blades. Leon sprung into action and raced to the side of the roof to a stone railing to see a helicopter pass by.

Leon raised both of his arms, "Hey over here!"

He pointed the flare to the sky and pulled the trigger, the helicopter seemed to react immediately and swung around, for a moment Leon swore he could see the pilot's face. Leon couldn't believe it, the nightmare was almost over, the helicopter hovered forward and seemed to lower a bit as a side hatch opened and a rope ladder fell from the opening. The rope ladder had a ring attached for him to grab and climb up on.

Soon he would find Claire and tell the rescue team about Brannagh and all would be over. That was when a searing streak of orange fire and blazing yellow slammed into the helicopter sending it dipping into the another area of the police station roof into the 2nd floor or the East Wing.

"Shit!" Leon screamed as he threw useless piece of orange plastic to the ground. He was not going to get out alive.

… **Minutes Later on the East Fire Escape…**

Jack saw it, bright as the sun, a lone light sparked into the night sky from the out of view roofing of the opposite end of the castle like police station. He pointed it out to Claire who then let out a gasp as what looked to be a projectile collided with a chopper and send it careening in their direction on the outdoor fire escape.

Claire grabbed his hand and pulled him up the stairs as the helicopter spun and dipped forward in their direction. They crashed through a door leading to the 2nd floor East Hallway and Jack kicked the door closed. They threw their arms over their heads and felt the force of the helicopter hit the building, shattering windows, breaking concrete, and bending iron. A small fire broke out down the hall as the engine and electrical equipment let out sparks in a fury of protest.

"You okay?" Jack said, Claire was already on her feet, looking around the corner.

"What the hell was that all about?" She said as she returned to him on the floor.

"Maybe they're sending rescue crews in?" Jack suggested as he got up finally.

"We should see if anyone made it, come on!"


	7. Chapter 6: Mr X

Chapter Six: Mr. X

Jack rounded the corner and immediately held his arm up and shielded his face from the burning flames. Claire stopped behind him and held her weapon ready only to be greeted by the dancing flames. Her eyes fell upon the charred remains of the pilot and the other rescue worker inside the cockpit, hands gripping a rope ladder which was now useless. Jack turned to walk away and turned to see Claire still watching the burning flames, he understood her despair but staying here was no longer safe.

Jack reached over and brushed her hand as if to take it in his, she pulled away and nodded instead.

"Come on, its not safe here." The pair left down the hallway and passed the door to the fire escape and instead headed to another door around the corner.

It looked to be a dated waiting room, a lone typewriter sat on the desk with a half typed page sticking out the top. Claire took a seat as Jack scanned the room carefully, there wasn't a whole lot to see. There was a storage container near the opposite door and plenty of seating, whoever manned their post here was long gone though some personal belongings remained. Jack spotted it on the opposite wall.

"Do you think we can still get past that helicopter if the fire was gone? Maybe there's a way out of the back of the station?"

Claire nodded, "Its worth a shot, hell, even a car at this point would be amazing." She undid her ponytail and brushed her long brown hair back into the scrunchy.

Jack looked away, trying not to stare awkwardly, "Yeah so, I think we still try to make it past we can use the fire extinguisher here, if it works great! If it doesn't, then we can always turn around."

"Sounds like a plan, was avoiding eye contact with me part of your plan too?"

She called him on his wandering eyes, "No uh, I'll get the extinguisher." He raced to the far wall and retrieved it from a not very secure sill and headed for the door.

Claire reluctantly jogged after him, holstering her weapon as she went. They walked down the winding hallway and Jack pulled the pin and threw it to the side as he went.

"Know how to use that thing?"

"Point and squeeze," he answered sarcastically as he held the canister in front of him and pulled the trigger. In a spray of white and grey foam the flames died down and eventually went extinct. With the heat of the melted body of the helicopter still upon them Claire took the first steps, Jack followed suit as he unholstered his weapon.

They moved down the hall and stopped dead in their tracks, before them was a motionless corpse, that wasn't what made them stop. Upon the corpse and all around them, perched on furniture and light fixtures were large black crows.

Jack raised an eyebrow, "You think they're infected?"

Claire peered up at one with deep black eyes and sharpened beak, watching her stand still.

"They seem…" Claire thought for a second, "chill?"

That was when one of them let out a sharp cry, "AAAAYEEEEEAAA!"

The obnoxious noise made Jack shiver, "Your move Claire, I did the whole fire thing, so you know…"

She shot him a glare, and re-focused her eyes on the beady eyes watching them, there had to have been at least a couple dozen.

"Run!" Claire shouted as she sprinted forward, leaping over the pecked corpse and down the hall, Jack stumbled to follow, tripping over the corpse as he went.

The crows wings cluttered like giant fans behind them, Jack watched in front of him as Claire threw open the metal door to the roof and he toppled in behind her. Claire jumped up and threw her shoulder into the metal door until it clicked into place, several low thumps were heard as their tiny heads cracked into the reinforced frame.

Claire laughed a little listening to them smack and drop, Jack looked up from his lying position on the concrete.

"Oh yeah, that's awesome very funny." He said taking in deep breaths as he spoke.

"Not the star of your high school track team huh?" Claire said as she walked past him still lying on the ground.

He gathered himself up off the ground and grinned sheepishly, "Not the star of much honestly." He followed Claire to edge of the heliport to a nearby railing where they could make out the city skyline in the distance. "dropped out of law school, drank and partied a little too much, and now my family has disowned me."

Claire seemed to understand in a weird way, "You know, at least you have a family to worry about you."

He leaned against the railing watching the shambling monsters in the streets below.

"I've been looking for my brother Chris since getting here, I know it seems crazy to walk right into this mess but he's all I have left. My parents died when I was twelve, Chris took me in. It seemed near impossible for him to take care of a child while going through the police academy, but he did it. I put him through hell and I owe him a lot, I went to college a couple years back, all this started to happen in the news and he stopped answering calls and emails."

"So you hopped on your ride and came down here, all for your brother?"

"Yeah, weird right? He would say I'm completely irresponsible…" Claire said as she pulled some keys from her pocket, "He couldn't stand my stubbornness, he always told me riding was dangerous, he was right." She tossed her keys over the railing onto the pavement below.

"You like motorcycles too?" Jack said.

"I've been riding for years, since Chris first got one, I had stolen it countless times. I love it, the feeling of the wind in your hair, the freedom…"

"It's the only place in the world where you can be yourself." Jack finished her sentence, his eyes glanced at her quickly and back to the concrete enclosure below.

"Right," she answered nervously, she had no idea he was into bikes too.

Jack looked over at her, "Claire, we will find your brother, I promise."

"I hope so, don't give up on your family Jack, something tells me they haven't given up on you yet."

Jack turned back to the railing, "Yeah well, you don't know my father."

"Hey," but she was interrupted by something, something heavy.

"Shh," Jack answered as he stepped in front of her.

"The stairs," Claire unholstered her weapon and stood ready, Jack raised his weapon at the stairs ready to decimate whatever was coming.

It finally came into view a giant man looking humanoid with pale skin and long black trench coat, he had a fedora on his head and dropped what looked like a spent rocket launcher onto the pavement. The heavy weight of the weapon making Jack shake in resonance.

It turned its head towards them, the pair looking like a couple of action figures compared to the hulking monstrosity.

Jack reacted first firing three rounds at the beast, Claire opened up second squeezing two rounds out of the chamber. The giant man lunged for them taking three steps in one large bound towards them. The man caught Jack by the neck and swung him like a rag doll, Claire turned and fire two more rounds as she raced to his wriggling body on the stairs, he had smacked the stair railing and was struggling to get up. The large man turned and started for them once again, in a brisk walk.

"Jack, get up! Come on!" She pulled him down the stairs as the giant burst through the stair railing.

Jack stumbled to his feet as they reached the bottom of the steps, the man was lying face down on the concrete nearby.

"Is he dead?" Claire said, knowing there was no way it was going to be that easy.

"I don't know, lets just get moving." He leaned on Claire as they staggered out and around the trenched man, "There's a door here to an access tunnel we can take," Claire said pointing to a sign.

Just then Jack let out a yelp, Claire looked down to see the man reached out grasping his leg, it pulled him down and threw him in one direction across the concrete. Claire snapped into action as she pulled the trigger on her handgun forcing a round into the man's head, making him stumble backward.

 _That worked a little,_ Claire thought to herself as it swung its fist at her knocking her to the ground, her stomach writhing in pain. Jack struggled to move, his entire body covered in abrasions and bruises. His eyes caught a glint of something shiny, _Claire's keys!_

He swiped them and stuffed them into his pocket as he rose to his feet, he pulled his handgun from his leather chest holster and fire three rounds, in his adrenaline, two went high, the third struck him in the back of the head. It fell in front of Claire, Jack pushed himself up off the floor in when he noticed Claire on her side.

"Claire!" He yelled to her as she rolled onto her back gasping for air.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," she whispered, "just got the wind knocked out of me." She rose to her feet grabbing her side, Jack swallowed his own pain and they leaned on each other to the access entrance.

Jack looked back as he opened the hatch door and Claire stepped in first, the mysterious silent man was gone. The monster was a man with no name, with no title, he was Mr. X. Jack sighed a little before shutting and locking the heavy hatch behind them.


	8. Chapter 7: A New Plan

Chapter Seven: A New Plan

"What the hell was that thing?" Claire cried, as the pair hurried down the tunnel leaving the giant monstrosity behind them.

Mr. X would not soon be forgotten by either of them, "Looks like we're a pretty good team?"

"I wouldn't have exactly said we won that fight or anything…" Claire groaned at him.

The tunnel opened finally; they must have escaped into some kind of underground escape route. They separated from each other finally, Claire leaning against a set of lockers, Jack throwing his weight onto the opposing wall. She sat across from him watching as he checked his handgun.

"I got six more shots in this magazine and two spare clips full," Jack said.

Claire shrugged, as she dropped her magazine from the Browning and pulled the slide back once. A nine millimeter round sprang out and clattered to the concrete. "Four rounds left in my magazine, one extra clip ready to go, I also have a Beretta but that's for backup, fifteen bullets in that one."

"Have you always carried so many guns while riding?"

"Traveling hundreds of miles alone, sometimes at night? You bet I do, I brought the Beretta for my brother, its actually his service weapon. He mentioned getting a custom Beretta from his friend on the force and left this one with me until I got my own."

"Well at least we have weapons," Jack sighed.

"Not like it matters Jack, you saw that thing out there, multiple shots between us and it barely flinched. That's not just another zombie." Claire reloaded her Browning and holstered it.

Jack nodded, "I know we're itching to get out of the station, but maybe we should look around for some weapons?"

"I agree,"

"Any idea where to start, I know most gun armories are underground in police stations. Depending on what's out there we may not make it there on what we have." Jack said.

Claire seemed to think for a minute, "Back in high school my brother showed me around the station, if we go through reception we should be able to find the S.T.A.R.S. office. They had a gun nut and bio chemist on hand, I wouldn't be shocked if we found a bunch of gear in there."

Jack smiled, "We may just make it outta here after all."

Jack rose from his seat on the floor and approached the ladder which should lead them back into the station.

"We better move while we can, who knows when we'll see that thing again."

Claire wished he hadn't mentioned the beast from earlier, her stomach dropped at the thought of running into it again. What happened if it found them before they got to the S.T.A.R.S. office? What if there were no weapons in the office? Even with some gear that didn't guarantee their survival. Claire remembered the radio Leon gave her on the streets, if they could make it the office she could call Leon and make a plan from there. If Leon was still alive they could regroup and escape, if not, Jack and her could make a run for the basement, since the streets and roof were no longer an option.

"I'll go first, if its not clear we'll reevaluate."

Claire hoped it was clear, the last thing she wanted to do was have to turn around and backtrack through Mr. X, a helicopter wreckage and undead crows.


	9. Chapter 8: Sherry

Chapter Eight: Sherry

Leon found himself retracing his steps back down from the roof and back to the main hall where he hurried down a fire ladder. He had to tell Brannagh about Stevens and the helicopter. He found Officer Brannagh standing behind the main desk facing the wall and a storage bin. Leon jogged over to him.

"Brannagh, Brannagh something happened, its Stevens!"

The Officer turned to face him in one quick jolt and Leon stumbled back in shock. Brannagh's mouth gaped open in a permanent awe, his teeth moving for the kill. Leon scrambled away on all fours as fast as he could. Brannagh stumbled forward slowly, Leon couldn't believe what he was seeing. Marvin Brannagh had become one of the dead.

Leon stood back straight up and pulled his handgun from his holster and took aim. "I'm sorry Lieutenant."

Leon squeezed the trigger and the chamber slid back in one deafening motion; the bang echoed in the main hall. Officer Brannagh sagged to the floor after letting out one last muffled groan.

Leon dropped the mag in his VP70 handgun and checked the magazine, he had fifteen rounds remaining. He added three more to top himself off and slid it back into his pistol, he chambered the next round. Leon stood motionless, almost numb, trying to figure out what to do next. He realized he was likely the only person left in this building; Claire hit the ground running in the streets almost an hour ago, maybe she made it? Then why hadn't he seen her yet?

Stevens was confirmed dead, Marvin turned and is now deceased. Thompson was missing in action, likely dead. Leon decided he had no choice but to push forward, for he could be all that was left. In academy his superiors taught him "POL" Priority of Life, as an officer you are to put your life on the line everyday while on duty. The general public always came first, innocents, then criminals, despite popular belief, cops placed the lives of the offenders first until their own lives were threatened. When in imminent danger and all innocents had been secured your life became priority.

Officer Brannagh encouraged saving as many lives as possible and they had clearly done all they could. Leon's new priority was to find the parking garage and look for the armory on the way.

 _But where to go first?_

Leon remembered suddenly, if anyone had a map it was reception. This place was a natural maze and without one he would be lost. Leon turned towards the reception area where the Licker lay dead, its tongue sprawled over the furniture. Leon trained his weapon on the dead creature and turned his head towards the reception desk, watching where he placed his hands. There was no point in becoming a snack this early in the game.

His hand fell across a plastic display stand, Leon pulled a small folded sheet labeled Raccoon Police Station Map and Directory, 1F, 2F, and 3F. Basement, Car Park, Sewer Entrance.

 _Jesus,_

The place was bigger than he thought. He may as well have been trapped in the great pyramids of Egypt. The front door wasn't an option…according to the map there was only one way he hadn't gone. Leon's eyes fell on the door before him, the splintered damaged door he was pretty sure the Licker came from. He traced the map and found at the far end of the station was an underground stairway that would take him past the break room, past the morgue, the armory, range and the car park.

From there he would have to find a working car and it would be back on the road and out of town. Easy enough, he stepped towards the wrecked door and slipped the map into his vest. Leon drew his weapon and kept it point at the ground in front of him as he moved. The hallways were fairly clear, as Leon entered he saw movement, something small about half his size running around the corner.

"What the hell?"

Leon pointed his gun and raced down the corner, he turned the corner with his weapon out in front first, three zombies littered the hallway, Leon looked up to see a pair of legs squeezing into a vent just beyond the dead.

 _Is that a little girl? Is she infected? She couldn't be, her movements are too smart._

Leon didn't hesitate, if there was a child roaming the police station he had to find them. He trained his weapon on the closest zombie by the broken window at his immediate left and fired. The first shot went low striking the beast in the gut, causing its stomach to open up and drip blood and sinew, the second struck its neck causing its moan to become a gurgling noise to erupt from its dysfunctional vocal chords. Leon retrained his aim and took a deep breath and fired once more, the round struck the zombie in the temple and it sagged back into the wall.

Leon focused on the second further down the hall across from a pair of double doors. He stepped forward firing twice more killing the second. The last at the end of the hall scraped against the walls with its fingernails splitting backwards. It was trying to reach the air ducts where the girl had climbed into. Leon closed the distance between them and it turned it's head at his sudden movements. Leon fired again, this one took one shot, blood spurted upward in an arc as it fell backwards to the cold wood floor.

Leon's eyes fell onto the ventilation shaft the girl had crawled into, Leon lifted the shaft and flicked on his flashlight. To see two blue eyes and golden hair, the girl was holding her legs close to her chest and appeared to be wearing a private school uniform. Leon didn't think she could be any older than twelve. There was a silence between the two as she looked up with him with a questionable gaze.

"Hey, my name is Leon, I'm a police officer, what is your name?"

She didn't move, "Sherry Birkin, are they gone?"

Leon peered back at the bodies piled behind him, they remained still blood pooled around them.

"They're gone,"

"You mean you killed them?" Her gaze was unfaltering, clearly she had seen a lot already and wasn't afraid to call things like they were.

Leon chose his words carefully, "When I saw you running I did, its my job to protect people."

Sherry seemed to loosen up a bit, "Is there anyone else with you? Where are your mom and dad?"

"They're under, I mean they're dead." Sherry managed.

Leon looked back at the hallway behind him once more, he really didn't like having his back to a dark hallway.

"I see, Sherry listen, its not safe here. We need to get out of the station, do you know where the parking garage is?"

"I do, but its not safe."

Leon's thoughts flashed back to all of his encounters so far, the zombies were slow an avoidable sure, but that thing from before in reception. The one that got Officer Brannagh, the zombies were only the beginning who knows what else was creeping around the station.

"I won't lie to you Sherry, I know its not safe but hiding in the dark only delays the inevitable we have to try to escape. You were lucky with these monsters, but eventually luck runs out." He hated having to be so blunt with someone so young. But he had no choice, he wasn't leaving without her.

"Its not just the zombies…" she mumbled, Leon nodded, "there's something else out there."

"RAWAWWGGGH!" Something let out a grumbling howl from Reception.

Leon turned his head, something was coming.

"Sherry, we need to go." He whispered.

After about a split second thinking she reached for his hand and he pulled her out, they raced into the briefing room and let the door fall closed behind them. Whatever was down the hall heard their steps and picked up the pace, stomping along, its shadow growing as Leon let the door fall behind them. There were a pair of lockers in the room behind some desks, he opened one and pushed Sherry inside and jumped into the next one beside her.

A second later the briefing room door slammed open behind them and something large stepped in. Leon peered through the slits in the locked to see a hulking figure stepping into the room. It was humanoid and stood on two legs, it appeared to have remains of clothing hanging from its shoulders and around its waist. The head sat off to one side and a meaty red flesh formed next to it, where an eye had formed.

 _What the hell is that?_

Leon clutched the butt of his pistol and watched it carefully. One arm was still intact the other had turned into a razor-sharp fin; the head still had brown colored hair sitting atop its head. It was clearly losing hair over time. It still wore pants despite the mutation, but they were tattered and worn, if it had shoes on they were long gone and it walked on human feet. The coat hanging over its shoulders was that of a doctor's with an ID badge, though Leon couldn't read it in the darkness.

The beast stopped in place scanning the room with its eyes, turned away from the lockers. The monster breathed deeply, as if it was listening. The monster trudged away towards a far door and threw its weight into the door, causing it to hang by its hinges. Leon drew in a deep breath and let his hand fall from his weapon.

"Daddy…"

Leon's eyes went wide, _Daddy?_

… **Half an hour later…**

Jack and Claire filed into the Reception office with their weapons drawn. As Claire entered the office, Jack looked back to check the balcony for anything following them. Mr. X leaving an ominous scar in his memory. Jack bumped into Claire, her red vest brushing against his shoulder.

"What?"

Claire's hazel eyes were wide as her eyes took in the gruesome sight before them. A large inside out monster was sprawled across the floor. It's tongue hung out of its mouth, twisted in-between the chairs.

"What the hell is that?" Jack said.

Claire's eyes grazed the walls, "bullet holes…"

"Good we're not alone, we should follow their lead."

Claire held the muzzle of here gun pointed down at the dead beast as Jack peered through the nearby window in reception.

"Looking for something Jack?" Claire asked.

Jack remembered her face, Mary. The young blonde receptionist from earlier in his stay, he wondered to himself if she had made it out.

"No," he said still peering through the glass.

Just then something smacked the glass making Jack fall backward in panic. Claire held her weapon up, it was woman, or at least what was left of her. The nametag on her blouse read, "Mary."

Jack shifted his weight, "Damn it, its like no one made it out."

The zombie snarled clawing and beating at the bullet proof glass.

"I have a feeling the whole city is like this by now." Claire said.


	10. Chapter 9: Dead Hall

Chapter Nine: Dead Hall

Claire sat watching as Jack barricaded the reception door with wooden benches, potted plants and furniture. The pair decided to take a breather to create a barrier between them and whatever the hell that thing in the trench coat was. They pulled the massive tongued beast into the main hall and left it lying to the side of the door. Claire wasn't sure a barricade would matter but she let him occupy his mind. The likelihood they would need to return to the main hall was slim. After all, once they reached the parking garage they would be gone.

"So, you can shoot?" Claire asked as Jack struggled to move another side table in fronted the door.

"Yeah, did some hunting with my Father as a kid."

"What can you hunt in the wilderness with a handgun?"

Jack stopped in place as he realized what she was hinting at, "If you have a question, why don't you just ask it?"

"I've seen the way you shoot, you load a weapon like its second nature. Your stance is the "John Wayne" stance, I've seen it a million times. You have training of some kind."

Jack juggled the thoughts in his head, "So? Its possible to learn to shoot like a soldier and not be a soldier."

"Not saying anything, its just odd. You hold your weapon in a downward position when moving, check corners when clearing rooms and point as you search. I've seen it a million times, my brother has shown me."

 _Right her brother was S.T.A.R.S.,_ Jack thought to himself as he turned to face her.

"DUI huh? You lied to me." Claire accused him.

"Now wait, hold up a moment." Jack held up his hands.

"Who the hell are you?" She raised her voice.

"I told you the truth the first time, I was brought in for a DUI, my name is Jack."

"You go to school right? You said so earlier, which one?"

Jack thought to himself, _shit, I don't know the schools around here. Dude, just tell her the truth stop lying!_

"Claire, I'm sorry."

"I knew it, I told you if you lied," she reached for her weapon.

"Wait, Claire listen," she stopped for a second her hand ready to grab her weapon. "Look, you're right, I'm military, well ex military. I have fired weapons before and I was picked up for a DUI."

"What branch?" She said.

Jack thought for a second, "None of them."

"Wait, what do you mean?"

"Not any regular branch, I worked for a private firm as a Special Ops agent."

"What? Who?"

"The Umbrella Corporation, I resigned over a year ago when I got a hint they weren't the most reputable company to work for. There was a warrant out for my arrest when I was picked up on suspicions of DUI, I was charged for conspiracy and murder."

Claire's eyes squinted at him in anger.

"Everything I have told you is true, I had plans of going to school. Decided not to and started working for Umbrella, I rose through the ranks of their security team quick and they made me an agent."

Claire shook her head, "Where does the murder and conspiracy come in?"

"Honestly I don't know, I never killed anyone. I reported concerns to my boss regarding the ethics of their genetic research and was told to resign immediately. I took their advice, resigned the next day. I learned soon after the police were looking for me, I spent weeks evading the police and ran from town to town avoiding detecting using the training I was given by Umbrella. It was the S.T.A.R.S. who eventually caught up to me and put me in cuffs, Officer Brannagh took me in. The truth is, I knew something was wrong in the city when we arrived, but never thought it would be this out of hand."

"You said the S.T.A.R.S. arrested you, did you see my brother?" Claire asked.

"No I didn't, but I sweat Claire if I did I would've told you."

"Right, just like you were completely honest about all of this." She rolled her eyes.

"These zombies, these creatures I think have something to do with a nearby incident that occurred a matter of months ago. After I resigned I attempted to prove what was happening. Then all this happened, someone orchestrated a crime and now I'm going down for murder and conspiracy."

"Then why come back? Why not run?"

"Claire, I have to clear my name, otherwise I'm a dead man. I was on my way to meet a contact, an officer named Burton." Jack said.

There was a deafening silence between the two, "Claire, I'm sorry, you have to understand, I didn't want you to get involved in any of this. That's why I chose not to tell you."

"Doesn't matter, you don't give a damn, all you care about is that damn parking garage…"

"That's not," Jack started.

Claire cut him off, "It is, we'll get you a damn car at the garage and you can make your escape. I'm not leaving without my brother."

Jack stood by himself for a moment as she left the room suddenly in an angry stomp out the far door. Jack looked back at the reception window, Mary still stood, watching him with a deep lifeless gaze that never fell from the window.

Going on his own wasn't an option and it definitely wasn't the smartest idea. Claire has every right to be mad, he had lied, sure it was to preserve himself and to survive but he could understand her anger. After all, he was probably the first thing she felt she could trust in this nightmare and now that was all turned upside down.

Just then, he heard it, gunfire, _Bang Bang!_

Two consecutive shots, one after the other. Jack snapped to attention and ran for the door, he spotted Claire at the end of the hall with her gun raised around the corner.

"What is it?" He yelled after her.

"Decided to tag along?" Claire said as she lowered her weapon.

He raised an eyebrow at her, "your kind of my only friend here."

"I wouldn't say that…" Claire muttered, "just a crawler, but that's not what caught my eye."

Jack stood next to her and flicked on his flashlight; the beams scanned across the room. Someone had been here…

"Bullet holes, broken windows, and the dead are, well they're dead again." Jack observed.

"Right, maybe an officer?"

"Or Leon." Claire added.

Jack stepped carefully down the hallway, leading the way over the dead bodies. He bumped one and felt himself freeze as if expecting it to get a chunk taken out of his boot. Claire followed closely she couldn't help but curl her lips in disgust.

She watched Jack approach the doors labeled, "Briefing Room." He reach the doorknob and held his weapon in front of him, his forearm and elbow curled as if ready to take the sudden recoil of his weapon. Claire couldn't believe she hadn't seen it earlier on, but during their fight with Mr. X it was too hard to ignore. The way he held his weapon in front of his chest instead of stretched out in front of him, he never blind fired, his sights were always in his view. He turned scanning each room for movement, not just in front of them but in the corners as well and he never seemed surprised, or at least he didn't show it.

Claire wasn't sure if she could trust him, _I mean conspiracy and murder? He's highly trained by an upstanding company, he cant be that bad. If he were a jerk did it really matter anymore?_

She would have to watch him closely nonetheless, but he seemed sincere. She hated herself for opening up to him on the helipad before that monster in the trench coat attacked. Telling him all of that stuff, it wasn't her style. She usually played her cards close to her chest, even in relationships with men. There was something different about him though, regardless of his past, he was easy to talk to. Plus if he was going to kill her, wouldn't he have done so already?

Claire watched him turn in one motion and lower his weapon from his chest. His movements were precise his footing was tactical and he was, well honestly, he was kind of hot…but she would never admit that. Why are the bad boys always the best looking?

"Clear, we should check this room, if it's a briefing room I wouldn't be surprised there's some ammunition or information lying around." Jack said.

Claire agreed, "I'll check the lockers."

Jack turned away from her, a little unsure where they stood. He felt bad about lying to her, but glad that he could tag along with her at least a little longer. The only thing worse than being stuck in this situation with someone that hated you, was being stuck in this situation with no one at all. While he was trained and fluent in combat, this was different. The enemy wasn't moving the same, everything was deathly quiet, normally closing distance between yourself and your target created an advantage, here it could get you killed.

Having Claire at his back meant he always had someone on his six. She didn't know it, but he really appreciated it.

He rummaged through the front desk at the head of the briefing office and came across something, it was small, rectangular and glossy. It was an ID with the phrase, "S.T.A.R.S. Special Tactics and Rescue Squad. Officer Valentine, Jill." Jack's eyes widened, "Valentine…"

Claire looked over at him, "What?"

"This, she's the cop who brought me in." Her picture was pretty, thin face, green eyes. Her brown hair had a red tint and her face was as serious as the when she put cuffs on him.

Claire squinted at the picture, "She worked with my brother."

"If her ID is here, maybe she's here, maybe the S.T.A.R.S. are okay?" Jack suggested.

Jack pocketed her ID and Claire started for the far door, "Come on, we gotta find the S.T.A.R.S. office."


	11. Chapter 10: STARS

Chapter Ten: S.T.A.R.S.

Jack led Claire through the twisting hallways after leaving the briefing office. The halls were dimly lit, but clear of the dead, Claire stopped at the corner in front of him.

"Anything?" Jack said, Claire peered around the corner. Just a cluttered three-way hallway.

She nodded to Jack, "Whoever is running through these halls is clearing the way." She motioned towards Jack.

Jack peaked past her shoulder to see a dead police officer slumped against the far wall. The skin was pealed away, it was obvious he had turned prior to death.

Jack continued past her towards the body, while Claire peered through a tinted window leading towards the homicide division.

Jack held his gun to it's face, his finger on the trigger. Jack slapped his hand across it's face, Claire turned to glare at him.

"What the hell Jack?"

He winced a little at her voice, "It's a way to check." He shrugged, "We need the ammo."

The officer was carrying a Beretta, the magazine was useless in their weapons and taking a spare gun was out of the question without the proper holster. Add to the fact that Jack had no training with Beretta's in the past. Sure he could figure out how to use the weapon, but the idea learning a new weapons in the moment was undesirable.

"I get it," Claire said, "What we need are better weapons."

Jack nodded, "But for now this will have to do, get your clips loaded, we better keep moving."

Claire led the way down the darkened hallways, loading her magazine, pressing the bullets into the clip as Jack kept her covered from hall to hall. They came to a stairwell, she pulled the slide on the Browning and led the way up the stairs, Jack kept close watching their backs as they ascended.

The stairs creaked beneath their feet as they entered the second floor, to their left was a long hallway, the other direction led to a set of double doors. There was a golden plate that read "Library", Jack went the opposite direction and kept to the walls. The lights flickered as the hallway darkened, the power had seemed to go out a long time ago. Claire turned on her flashlight, holding the light with her Browning.

Suddenly, something skittered past, Jack noticed a doorframe in the darkness with another golden plate, "S.T.A.R.S.".

"Great we found it," He threw the door open.

"Did you see that?" Claire said.

"What? I don't think it was a zombie. We should be safe inside." Jack led her inside and closed the door firmly behind them.

Once inside Jack and Claire began shuffling through the desks. Honestly, Claire couldn't remember which desk belonged to her brother. She tried the back desk, materials on the desk were strewn about, a small herbal plant sat next to the keyboard. Claire raised her eyebrows; this couldn't be his desk. Chris wasn't much of a gardening type.

She turned to her side to find a medical kit hanging from the wall and pulled it from its hanging spot. Inside was some medicinal spray and bandages, nothing monumental. Under the keyboard was a note, Claire moved it from the board and read down the lines of text briefly.

 _Rebecca,_

 _Barry, Chris and I have successfully located the Spain facility, we will be moving in soon with some ex-S.T.A.R.S. members to gather evidence and make arrests. I wanted to take a moment to write you while I could, in case something happens…_

 _That night at the Spencer mansion, what you said, you were right. I was running, not from the monsters we encountered, not from Umbrella, I was running from my past._

 _I was a jerk, if I return I would love to come see you._

 _I promise I'll do all I can to make it home, when I get there, I will come for you._

 _Yours,_

 _Liam_

"Rebecca," Claire recognized the name, someone from S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team. Claire only knew a name, what bothered her was Chris, clearly he had left town a while back.

Jack shuffled through the desk facing the front of the officer, where a large S.T.A.R.S. banner hung behind the main desk. His hands fell across a green leather-bound journal, the front read "Chris."

He flipped through it, looking for the latest entry.

 _Aug. 24 1998_

 _With the help of Jill, Barry, and Liam, I finally obtained information vital to this case. Umbrella has begun research on the new G-virus, a variation of the original T-virus, what does this G-virus do?_

 _We talked it over, and decided to fly to the main Umbrella HW in Europe. I won't tell my sister about this trip as doing so could put her in danger. Please forgive me Claire._

Jack paused after reading the journal, the proof, the information he had been seeking coming to Raccoon City was all with Chris. The Spencer Estate was no longer a priority, if he was to expose Umbrella he would have to locate Chris Redfield and his partners.

"Find anything?" Claire asked from behind him.

Jack nodded, "Yeah," he slipped the journal into her hands, she looked up at him questionably, "The latest entry, it looks like we're not going to find your brother here after all."

"The virus…that's it, he left town to continue his investigation. He was trying to stop this." Claire said as she read the passage.

Jack nodded, "Yeah, he also left this behind."

Jack held up a golden medallion with the picture of a unicorn on the front.

"I don't understand," she said.

"I have a hunch, there's a statue in the main hall that has an indentation shaped like this, maybe something we can use?" Jack said slipping the medal into his pocked.

Claire nodded, "Then that's where we need to go next."

"Claire,"

She looked up at him, "Your brother, he knew something about Umbrella. He has the information I am seeking to take down Umbrella. If its true and they caused this and he has proof, we need to find him."

"So he's nothing but evidence to you?"

Jack shook his head, "You don't understand, I used to work with Umbrella. Your brother was right to get the hell outta town. If he stayed, its likely Umbrella would've harmed him."

"You can't be serious? A multi-billion dollar pharma company attempting to murder police officers."

"Claire, look around us! They've taken down a whole city and if what your brother says is true, they're trying to cover it up. Its not that he is just evidence, I know he's your brother, but right now your brother could be our only hope for justice against Umbrella."

Claire seemed to think for a bit, "Okay, so now"

But she was cut off, the door shut suddenly and Leon appeared in the doorway. Jack took a step back, "Leon!" Claire said excitedly.

Leon nodded, just then a small child stepped out from behind him.

"Hey, been looking all over for you since I got here," Leon shot Jack a quick glance.

"Oh, this is Jack, I found him in the cells. He's been helping me find my brother."

Leon nodded, "In the cells?"

Claire shot Leon a look, a look that said _I can handle this._

"Right, this is Sherry, found her wandering the police station."

Sherry waved nervously to Jack and Claire.

Claire crouched to Sherry, "Hi, nice to meet you Sherry."

Claire looked back up at Leon, "Do you know if there's a way out of here?"

"We were planning on heading to the parking garage," Jack said folding his arms.

Leon nodded, "It's a good start, the parking garage is our plan A, the sewers is plan B. Let's all meet in the parking garage, if things don't look right we head underground." Leon said.

He holstered his handgun and directed Sherry to sit and rest in a nearby desk chair.

"Is the girl going to be okay?" Jack asked.

Leon nodded, "She's been through a lot honestly. For now she's gonna rest while I look for supplies."

Jack nodded, "Great, we have a pitstop, then we're headed for parking."

Claire nodded in agreement, "Excellent, here take this radio, we can keep in contact. If anything changes, please let us know, let's touch base when we reach the garage." Leon said as he dropped a radio into Claire's grasp.

Jack and Claire nodded, "You ready?"

Claire nodded, "Can't stay here."

Claire grasped the doorknob before stopping and turning to Leon as he started searching the lockers. "Wait."

Leon looked back at them, "Leon, there's something in this station, it attacked us. It wasn't like the zombies, a man in a trenchcoat."

"She's right, he's incredibly dangerous, we probably shot it almost ten times and it didn't even stumble. If you see it, run like hell."

Leon nodded, "Great, just what we need."

Jack pulled his handgun from the holster and led Claire out the door. Leon watched them leave, he decided against telling them about the monster he saw before.

Leon looked back at Sherry, it wasn't just about him getting out anymore. Sherry was just a child, he would do anything he could to get her out alive.


	12. Chapter 11: Search for the Rubies

Chapter Eleven: Search for the Rubies

Only a couple hours later Jack and Claire found themselves slipping through another heavy oak door, the brass doorknob was cool to the touch. Claire pushed with her shoulder; her Browning handgun trained as the light poured into the hallway behind them. Jack followed her closely with his back to her watching the dimly lit hallway behind them.

Jack closed the door behind them, Claire scanned the balcony above them when she noticed the room was clear she took in their new environment. The walls were lined with books, shelves jetted out into the middle of the room. Jack paced ahead of her checking between the shelves, he paused at the last aisle and brought his hand to his mouth.

"Shit," he gagged and locked eyes on something down the aisle.

Claire hurried to catch up to him, with her weapon at her side she peeked around the corner down the last aisle. She had a strong stomach but even she felt her gut squirm at the ghastly sight. A young woman was slouched against the wall down the aisle. Her skin wasn't peeled away, her face wasn't torn and while her eyes were void of life, they weren't undead.

"I don't think she had the chance to turn…" Jack said quietly.

The woman's stomach was torn open, her intestines hanging from her gut like large worms. Her ribs jutted out of her abdomen, they were broken apart and strewn beside her. The poor woman had been carved out, her organs were not where they should have been, her body was hollow like a pumpkin on Halloween. Her mouth was gaped open in permanent never-ending awe, the fear in her expression was unmistakable.

"Goddammit, seeing them never gets easier." Jack stepped away and Claire could hear him sigh on the other side. Claire turned from the grisly sight and joined Jack in the middle of the library.

After doing a paranoid once over of the room Jack holstered his weapon and leaned against a brown statue which was situated against another statue. It faced away and was positioned towards the library wall. The statue was of a fairly plain looking man made of rock colored in brown.

"This place is a maze, maybe we should head downstairs after this and just keep descending until we hit the parking garage." Jack shrugged as he folded his arms in frustration.

"Can't hurt to check everything," Claire stopped in her tracks and stared at the trio of statues Jack leaned against.

He looked up to see her with a thoughtful gaze, her eyes shifted back and forth.

"What?"

"Does this look weird to you?"

Jack raced to her side and looked at the statues. They were of three men, the brown plain one on the left Jack had rested against. One on the far right which was a grey stone with a plain looking man facing the opposite direction. The figure in the middle stole the show, it had it's own pedestal and featured a muscular man in roman armor holding what looked to be a red sparkling jewel towards the roof.

"It doesn't make sense," Claire said.

"Am I missing something?"

"Do you see? The statues are all separate pieces of art bunched up together in the middle of the room. Why not spread them out and make them look balanced in the room?"

Jack was confused, "Balanced?"

"You know?" Claire said, Jack raised an eyebrow at her. "The feeling, the decoration of the room is off."

Jack approached the middle statue; it had an inscription on the front panel.

 _The god of sun and the god of moon. Their gaze upon me is the only thing that can release red soul._

"What does it mean?" Jack said.

Claire moved to the brown statue then looked at the god statue. She placed her shoulder into the base and pushed on the brown statue. It slid, she felt a shift in the floor, like something heavy shifting below them.

Jack pulled his Springfield expecting the monster in the trench coat to come stomping around the corner.

"Something in the floor is moving, it's a mechanism." Claire said excitedly.

Jack looked over towards the wall where the brown statue once faced, the was a dark brown colored wood tile, it appeared to be about the same width and length of the statues. He peered to the other side in the direction of the grey statue and saw the same thing.

"I think I know what we're supposed to do here." He pointed at the brown statue, "Sun." Then at the statue, "Moon."

"They have to face the god." Claire muttered to herself, without hesitation she began to push the statue around and past the Moon God Statue so the Sun God's gaze would fall on the middle God.

Jack followed suit as he pushed the Moon God in the opposite direction to the far wall the Sun God once faced. In minutes they had both Gods facing the God statue in the middle, Claire's fit into place with a thud, Jack's slipped in several seconds later. As it landed in, there was another slow rumble and a snap from the statue. The red jewel slipped from it's grasp and clattered to the ground.

Claire raced to pickup the jewel from the wooden floor.

"What do you think its for?" Jack asked.

Claire slid the jewel into her side pocket, "I don't know, but after all of that we're not going to just leave it here."

Jack nodded, "come on, we're almost to the main hall I bet."

He led Claire to the double doors on the far side behind the statues and took a deep breath before pressing against it and turning the handle. He pointed his weapon as he moved through the doorway, as soon as he heard the echo of his footsteps in the cavernous main hall he knew where he was. Claire walked past him and leaned over the railing; she couldn't help but smile at the familiarity of the giant room. Straight across she could see the neighboring balcony, a couple zombies patrolled the far side their moans echoed through the hall.

"There, the statue. When we found that medallion in your brother's things the shape of it reminded me of the circle indentation in the statue. I first saw it when they brought me to the cells." Jack said as he led her down the stairs to the lower level, reminding himself to routinely check the shambling monsters to make sure they stayed on their balcony. They didn't seem to notice them yet.

He approached the statue and removed the golden unicorn medallion from his pocket and placed it carefully into the indentation. Just then there was another low rumbling as the statue swiftly slid towards the pair.

"What the hell?" Claire said as she stumbled backwards.

"I didn't see that coming," Jack said as the statue of the young maiden shifted allowing a sparkling red object to fall from her pitcher. It clattered onto the tray before them.

 _What is all this? Why all the crazy puzzles and shifting statues and unseen gears…? I haven't seen stuff like this since, The Spencer Estate blueprints._ Jack thought to himself. _Does their influence on the very city's foundation really stretch this far?_

"Jack, I don't know…" Claire trailed off.

Jack snatched the red jewel and pocketed it. Jack started for the stairs, "There's one more area of this police station I know we haven't searched yet, come on."

"Jack wait,"

Jack stopped and looked back to see Claire, she seemed to be in deep thought, her eyes fixated on the ground before her.

"Are we going to talk about whatever the hell that was upstairs with the statues?"

Jack shook his head, "I mean, I just think we have more pressing matters right now."

She stepped forward and looked into his eyes, "I've never seen anything like that. I mean, puzzles and riddles?"

Jack holstered his handgun, "I know its crazy."

"Then why don't you seem phased by this?"

Jack turned from her and approached the stone statue of the maiden, the golden unicorn medal gleamed back at him.

"The truth is Claire; it doesn't stop surprising you." Jack admitted as he let his hands fall across the shiny medallion, the cool metal responding to his touch.

"What are you talking about? You've seen this before?"

Jack shook his head, "Kind of, I mean I've seen blueprints."

Claire wasn't sure what to make of what Jack was telling her, he couldn't mean Umbrella.

"Umbrella, they were famous for this kind of thing. It started with high tech computer systems and cameras, it evolved into booby traps and puzzles like what you saw upstairs."

Claire was shocked by what he was saying, "I get security measures, but booby traps and puzzles? Umbrella is a high-tech pharmaceutical company, why would it dabble in mazes and riddles?"

Jack turned to face her, "Umbrella is full of secrets, when you have secrets, you'll do anything to keep others out."

"What kind of secrets,"

"When I drove into town, right before I was arrested, I drove to the outskirts in the Arklay Mountains. There's an old site there, the Spencer Estate. I was informed by my contact, Burton, that there was a lab beneath the mansion. He told me about all of these crazy occurrences, the puzzles and contraptions, the horrifying failed biological weapons and about the connection between Umbrella and the Captain that betrayed them. I had studied the blueprints Burton provided, they were dismissed by the local police force and basically driven out of town. Burton wanted his team exonerated."

Claire's eyes were wide with disbelief, it was the first time Jack realized her had her full attention.

"Someone caught wind of my investigation and frankly if Umbrella has Raccoon City this deep in their pockets, to the point where the built the city with traps. Then I was framed, they had to have known Raccoon was in the midst of an outbreak to leave me for dead in a cell. The point is Claire, I think all of this has to do with Umbrella and I think your brother knew that too. We have to be careful, this isn't going to be straight forward."

Claire nodded, it seemed she was beginning to believe him. "We'll need to think outside of the box."

"We need to find what these jewels can lead to." Jack said, "Stay close."

Without another word they jogged up the stairs to the opposing balcony, the two zombies from before moaned when their sights set on the pair. Jack stepped forward and fired two rounds clipping the first zombie in the head on the second shot. Claire fired as well, she missed the first but hit the zombie twice with the last two, turning the head into mush. It seemed dead flesh didn't hold quite as well under direct attack. Jack held down the gag reflex in his throat and watched the bodies carefully as they entered the waiting room they had been in before.

Claire shut the door behind them and Jack slipped through the small room, almost knocking over a potted plant on the receptionist's counter before opening the next door.

"We never got to check this hall before the helicopter crash." Jack said as he motioned for her to follow. Claire nodded and covered his advance down the hall, watching the opposite end of the hall that led to the fire escape.

Claire could barely make out the flickering light of the helicopter crash from before. She shuddered at the thought of Mr. X finding his way back up the stairs after their last encounter and watching them from the flames of the crash.

Jack traced the corner with his Springfield and Claire joined his side, there was a dead end hallway with a heavy oak door on the left and another light brown door on the right. Jack ran to the first door on the left, it was made of high-quality oak wood. A golden nameplate was screwed into the wall just to the right of the door.

 _Chief Irons_

Jack turned the handle, it barely turned. "Damn, its locked."

"The Chief, do you think he made it out?" Claire asked.

"Well I'd say there's only three things that could've happened, he's long dead, he escaped, or he's hiding out in there." Jack laughed to himself, "But I seriously doubt that."

"Let's try the other one, we can always pry this one open later." Claire said as she raced to the end of the hall and turned the knob.

It rolled and the door creaked open, she couldn't help but cringe at the loud noise echoing down the dark hallway. Jack followed her in, the first thing he noticed about the room was the moonlight pouring in from the skylight above.

"Wow," it was the first view of the night sky he had seen since waking up early this morning to make the trip to Raccoon. Claire scanned the room, when she spotted something towards the back of the room on the wall, a statue. It was similar to the middle stone god statue they saw in the library. This one appeared to be coming out of the wall.

It had chains hanging from either side of the wall as if holding him back. On either side of the chained statue was a bust of two women. Each had indentations on their broach's, their faces were blank with no features. The shapes were all too familiar. Jack removed the red jewels from his pocked and handed one to Claire. She stepped forward and placed it in the slot, nothing happened. Jack frowned, then stepped forward and placed his in the opposites statue's bust, with that both jewels clicked and sunk in place.

"We did something," Claire said watching the statue suspiciously.

The middle statue turned twisting the upper torso in one sleek move to expose its back. The back opened up to reveal a large compartment. Jack reluctantly slipped his hand inside and pulled the first item out, it was long and black, there was a great weight to it. As he slid it out, he was surprised at how long it was. When it finally slid out, the metal clinked against the stone and Jack brought his off hand up to grasp the tube.

It was a black pump action shotgun; it had a pistol grip and no butt. It was one of those home defense models and did not look standard issue to Raccoon Police. Just above the trigger was the name, Remington inscribed on the side. Jack pulled the pump back as Claire stuck her hand for the other object in the statue, it was loaded, 12. Gauge.

Claire pulled the slim object from the inside of the statue, "What is it?"

Jack nodded, "Oh I've seen one of those before, not sure why its in a police station." He reached to the side of her gun and pushed a release button, there were rods on each side that extended outward suddenly. There was a thick fiber string stretched across the width of the rods, it was a crossbow.

"Think it'll work against those things?" She motioned to the door.

"Don't stick your nose up at it, crossbows are very powerful weapons. Plus you'll never run out of ammo as long as you retrieve your bolts." Jack said.

"It only came with one," Claire frowned.

"Better hold onto it, there's gotta be bolts somewhere if someone went through the trouble of hiding it here." Jack said, Claire sighed, he had a point.

"What's the plan now?" Jack said she he readied the shotgun.

Claire folded the crossbow, that was when they heard it, something nearby. Heavy footsteps coming down the hall, they weren't normal footsteps, they were thudding like someone was dragging and dropping a body over and over.

"Is that who I think it is?" Claire said as they stacked on the door ready to fight their way out.


	13. Chapter 12: Mr X In Pursuit

Chapter Twelve: Mr. X in Pursuit

Jack wrapped his hand around the door handle listening as the heavy footsteps became louder and closer with each thump. Jack lifted his shotgun and swung the door open and tumbled into the hall. Claire remained behind the open door behind cover.

"Jack what do we do?" Claire said, the hallway was a dead end just behind them.

Mr. X trudged past the chief's heavy oak door; their options were dwindling fast.

Jack felt the weight of the bulky shotgun in his hands. Jack got an idea, he lifted the weapon and pulled the trigger, the sound was deafening. Jack's ears were ringing the shockwave from the blast could be felt in his chest. The slug of bb's tore into X's chest sending him stumbling backwards.

 _Its working keep hitting him and we can get past!_

Jack stepped forward closing the distance between him and Mr. X. He pulled the trigger again, the shot rang out in the hall, the shotgun jumped violently with each blast in his hands. Mr. X fell back again, with hardly any time to recover Mr. X went into a crouch.

"Go Claire now!" Jack yelled as she sprinted forward, he kept his weapon trained on X as he followed her exit.

Claire slipped by successfully and headed down the hall towards the reception waiting room. Jack was next he pressed his back to the corner of the wall and slipped past, just as he was about to clear the monster. A large grey hand grasped his neck and twisted around to throw him into the wall. Jack could feel his shoulder blades contort as they resisted being squeezed into the wall.

Jack let out a small yelp, as Mr. X lifted his left hand, Jack closed his eyes and felt the shotgun fall from his grasp as he began to lose his breath. Just then there was a spurt of blood from Mr. X's ash grey veiny hand around Jack's neck. The arrow pierced the wall behind his hand and pinned it to the wall. Jack fell to the ground coughing and wheezing for as much oxygen as he could draw in. His neck was sore from the brutal attack, he felt his own neck and felt a tinge of pain as he dragged his fingers over the fresh bruises.

"Jack get up!" Claire yelled from down the hall.

Instinctively he got to his feet and pumped his legs as hard as he could, plucking the shotgun from the floor as he went. Claire ran ahead towards the fire escape door from before. Jack's eyes went wide as he felt cold dead fingers clasp around his left ankle.

 _Shit, you gotta be kidding!_

Jack fell to the floor and his shotgun went flying towards the waiting room door. Jack cranked his head to see Mr. X's cold dead stare, his lips quivering in frustration.

 _You can't let him corner you again, do not let him get you._

Jack pulled his Springfield nine millimeter from its holster and aimed down between his legs.

"Let go!" He yelled as he pulled the trigger in rapid succession, sending several rounds into the dark humanoids face. Chunks of it's fleshy exterior tore apart as the hot lead ripped through the monster's skull.

"How is he still moving?"

"Jack!" Claire screamed, she drew her Browning and tried to get a bead on Mr. X from down the hall.

"Claire go! Get out of here! It wants me, go find Leon!"

Claire seemed to struggle with the decision, stepping forward before lowering her weapon and throwing her shoulder into the door behind her. Just like that, she was gone.

It was one last thing Jack had to worry about, she could handle a few zombies, this thing was a whole other ballgame. It seemed to seek him out, whenever they ran into it, it's eyes always focused on him.

Jack fired twice more and felt it's grasp weaken. Just then the slide of the weapon locked back as it went empty.

Jack released the slide with the lever under the chamber and slid the weapon back into it's holster and grasped the hilt of his knife. With one smooth motion he slashed, cutting the man's hand still holding his shoe. Mr. X released his grip as one of his fingers folded back, hanging by a thread on his knuckle.

Jack got to his feet and once more grabbed his shotgun from the floor, _don't follow Claire, it'll only endanger her further._ He slammed his shoulder into the waiting room door and limped through the waiting room without stopping. He hit the opposite door with just as much force and threw the door closed behind him.

 _Great, where to now genius?_

Jack decided against going back down into the main hall, he needed to get into another room as quickly as possible.

He raced down the balcony and hurried across to the opposite side of the main hall second floor. His footsteps echoed loudly as he approached the library double doors, they were a saving grace. Just then, he heard another pair of heavy footsteps, the familiar thudding of Mr. X as it ripped through the door of the waiting room. It saw Jack entering the library and leapt over the railing and landed with an earth shaking thud. It walked with purpose, closing its distance to the other side of the main hall, passing right by the main hall desk and fountain.

Jack threw the door closed and entered the library in a sprint, he could just barely make out Mr. X's hands pulling him up to the railing.

 _You're shitting me! He can climb?_

Jack turned and hit the stairs in a sprint to the door at the top, Mr. X, entered the library doors and entered into a sprint, tearing at the carpeted stairs behind Jack as he reached for Jack's boots. Jack could feel the thuds of X's boots shaking the floorboards of the library. Jack sprinted through the door at the top of the stairs and didn't bother slamming it behind him. He took in his new surroundings, he was on a small balcony, probably only about twelve feet long to another door.

He quickly reached for the new door and entered just as Mr. X, appeared on the balcony turning it's head to see Jack making his escape.

 _Please God, don't let it corner me!_

Jack entered a dark and dusty room, he didn't recognize it as anything special, there was a lone set of stairs at the back end of the room, some old metal parts lay scattered and a bucket of tools knocked over in the center. Jack raced in and kicked the orange home improvements store bucket out of his path. He hit the narrow wooden stairs running, heaving and out of breath as he reached the top he realized he was at a dead end.

Jack backed into the wall and removed his spare magazine from his pants and slapped it into the weapon, he pulled the slide back and let the next round feed into the chamber. As his back hit the wall he felt something poke him, he took his eyes off of Mr X's hands pulling X up the narrow stairway and turned to see a handle of sorts sticking out of the wall.

Jack pulled the handle and a large sized vent shaft opened up, "No way!"

He holstered his weapon, and peered down, there was no clear indication of how deep the shaft might go. Jack didn't think another moment, he slipped in feet first and turned back to close the shaft to see Mr. X reaching for him from the dusty old room. Jack slammed it shut and let himself slide down into the dark passageway with little control over the speed of his descent.


End file.
